National Finance Center outgrows plans to build on U of New Orleans campus

Officials at the University of New Orleans have switched gears on the pending National Finance Center expansion.

Initially, UNO wanted the agency to be a tenant for its Research and Technology Park. UNO Chancellor Gregory O'Brien said the university soon realized that the magnitude of

His suspicions were confirmed earlier this year when the U.S. Office of Personnel Management selected the NFC as one of four national centers to replace 22 current providers of payroll and related services for the federal government's 1.8 million employees. Over time, the initiative will result in thousands of technology jobs coming to New Orleans.

"(The NFC expansion) is going to be quite big. This is going to be bigger than can be built on a campus," O'Brien said. "We want to allow there to be a place where the NFC could really continue to grow."

Mayor Ray Nagin has the same idea. During his state of the city address last month, the mayor included among his goals "bringing various parties to the table" to build a 50- to 100-acre high-tech, campus-style complex for the NFC. The center is housed between four buildings -- two it leases from NASA in the Michoud Assembly Facility and two nearby in New Orleans Business and Industrial District that are privately owned. The center leases 350,000 square feet.